One is the inland ferry system. There are 14 routes, all of them short hops across rivers and lakes, which operate under private contract with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. Annual budget: About $10 million. The ferries are — astoundingly, in this day and age — free.

The second ferry system is comprised of the two BC Ferries routes that make a profit — the Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay run, and the Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay run. They are decidedly not free.

The third ferry system is comprised of all the other coastal routes of the BC Ferries system — 23 in all — that are not only not free, they collectively lose money in titanic amounts, adjective intended. The only things that keep them afloat are large annual subsidies from the provincial and federal governments, and the frantic arm-waving of the public they serve. Buoyant, these routes are not.

Some 2011 numbers:

• Before provincial and federal subsidies were applied, the Prince Rupert-Port Hardy route lost $35,733,000. The Prince Rupert-Haida Gwaii route lost $17,751,000. In the past eight years, fares for northern routes have risen 78 per cent while passenger loads have fallen 40 per cent.

• The Swartz Bay-Gulf Islands route lost $19,123,000, while the Tsawwassen-Gulf Islands route lost $13,622,000.

In all, the northern and so-called “minor” routes lost $157,581,000 in 2011 before subsidies. Add on the colossal hemorrhaging of the Tsawwassen-Nanaimo route, and the grand total, for 2011 alone, was $181,368,000.

Not all of the routes sustained what are considered unacceptable losses: Commuter routes such as the Sunshine Coast and Bowen Island ferries posted modest losses, given the regular traffic they generate and their link to the Lower Mainland.

But the majority of the money-losing routes were severely under-utilized, or, to look at it another way, the destinations they called in at were severely over-served.

Either way, something has to give.

The residents those ferries serve want it to be the provincial government. The federal government’s portion of the subsidies, at $27 million for 2011, has risen with inflation. The provincial government’s portion, however, has remained static at around $125 million per year for the last decade.

As for the $80 million the Liberals pumped into the ferries last week, it’s not enough to keep the system afloat.

Over $45 million of that has already been dedicated to covering costs last year and this, and the remainder won’t cover the projected shortfalls of almost $60 million annually.

Meanwhile, the cost of fuel has more than doubled since 2003. There is the annual cost of servicing a $1.6-billion debt. A cash-strapped provincial government will not be in the mood to give BC Ferries any more money, no matter who’s in power.

Critics argue that the system’s woes were self-inflicted, that the debt it incurred led to higher fares, which led to lower use.

They also argue that the ferry system should be considered an extension of the highway system and subject to the same level of subsidy highways enjoy on the mainland.

Nice thoughts, bad analogy. In one way, the coastal ferry routes already are a proper extension of the highway system — the main highway system connecting Vancouver Island to Metro Vancouver. And it’s a very profitable system at that.

People on those routes pay fares that have risen at a faster pace than inflation, and they do so, if not willingly, then out of necessity of doing business in the province’s two biggest economic engines. Those routes make money because there’s money to be made.

The problematic part of the analogy has to do with that other ferry system, the one that doesn’t make money.

Most of those routes could hardly be considered highways, and some, like the Prince Rupert-Port Hardy route, barely qualifies as a back road. There is no reason, economically, for it to exist.

As for other communities served by these routes, one has to ask if they deserve the present level of service they already enjoy, if that’s the right word.

The question goes to the very heart of island and remote-community living. That is, should the government, at enormous annual cost, subsidize the self-imposed isolation of the residents in those communities?

Is the cost of those subsidies justified by their contributions to the province’s economy, or are those ferry services there just for someone who doesn’t care to live in a more populated area? Should island communities themselves pay more toward the operation of the ferries that serve them?

Like it or not, those are questions islanders are going to have to live with from now on, because all the frantic arm-waving in the world won’t change the government’s course.

That boat’s sailed. Time it did.

pmcmartin@vancouversun.com

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McMartin: Sinking fortune of BC Ferries: Time to abandon ship?

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